Generally, a mobile computing device, whether an autonomous robot or a tablet computer, smartphone, or other wired or wireless device associated with a human user, determines a geographic location by leveraging geolocation information gathered by a global positioning system (GPS) receiver operating upon the computing device. The GPS is a space-based navigation system that provides location and time information continually transmitted from a number of GPS satellites. To determine a location in real-time, the GPS receiver operating upon the mobile computing device monitors multiple satellites that are in view of the receiver and executes triangulation equations to determine the precise position of the receiver and, therefore, the mobile computing device.
The space-based navigation system provided by the GPS has become the typical mechanism by which mobile computing devices determine their respective locations. Data collected by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shows that civilian GPS receivers can in optimal circumstances provide horizontal accuracy to within a meter (www.gps.gov), though accuracy is seriously impacted by several factors, including atmospheric effects, sky blockage (e.g., indoor use), and receiver quality.
Other navigation systems rely on wireless network access point models or various triangulation methods (e.g., cell tower triangulation) to determine a geolocation of an associated mobile computing device.